Of all aspects of bodybuilding training, stretching is the one part that is most often ignored by the majority of people. It is just one of those things that seems to get pushed off to the side as not that important. You probably say to yourself in the back of your mind "I know I should stretch... blah, blah, blah... but why bother? I just want to get big and muscular. And besides I don't want to look like some skinny yoga master."
(Note: I hope I didn't offend any yoga masters who may be reading this...)

Well, one thing you probably didn't realize is that when stretching is properly integrated into a weight training program it can actually speed up your muscle growth. In this article I'm going to outline several unique stretching exercises that are designed to stretch the connective tissue which surrounds the muscles, and there by expand the fascia and enable the muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

The connective tissues that surround the muscles is very tuff and hugs the muscle fibers tight. This can actually constrict expansion and growth. For muscle hypertrophy to occur the surrounding fascia needs to be stretched and become more pliable in order to give the muscle fibers room enough to expand grow bigger.

Even if you haven't seriously focused on stretching before, the muscle mass that you have built up to this point came about from the stretching and expanding of the muscles encasing tissue. During your workouts when blood is being pumped into the muscles, the surrounding connective tissues are being stretched, that's why you get that tight feeling we call "the pump".

The ideal time to stretch for increasing muscle mass is right after you've trained a particular bodypart and the muscles are "pumped up" and feeling tight. At this stage the connective tissues are already being stretched from the blood volume in the muscles, and then by manually stretching the muscles as well, you get a double whammy effect and this really increases the muscle fibers growth potential.

Another key benefit that stretching provides is that it improves the shape of the muscles. Expanding the fasical and connective tissue pulls the muscles apart and enhances separation.